ZEITGEIST BSI: Bosum Strand Irregulars

A Goliath Goes to a Party...

The next day, the constables followed up on the lead Cazara and IronPeak had turned up from going through the files at Goodson’s Estuarial Reformatory. Most of the cases of Distant Madness in the city were connected to a neighborhood along the Stanfield Canal. Using their planar tracking ritual, they found a concentration of Apet energy focused on a small warehouse. When no one answered Cazara’s knock, the constables broke in and found evidence of another altercation. Several people had been seriously injured or killed, and then dragged out into the canal. Inside the warehouse was a large crate which had been broken open and had its contents removed. The crate was the right dimensions to have transported the golden seal from the ziggurat.


Looking through the office, Cazara was able to discover that the warehouse was owned by Caius Bergeron. She and IronPeak headed to Silver Swan Inn to question Caius Bergeron. Meanwhile, the others searched for signs of Apet energy in nearby subrail tunnels, following a vision of Summer’s.


At the Silver Swan, Cazara and Ironpeak went to Bergeron’s penthouse suite and were confronted with yet another door that no one was answering. Cazara clambered out a window and entered from the balcony. Inside, she found Bergeron murdered on his bed. By the smell, she guessed he’d been dead a few days. A cursory examination revealed that his brain had been removed through his soft palate. In his room, IronPeak and Cazara found a map with two locations marked on it: the High Bayou ziggurat and a location about a half mile off the north coast of Ber, complete with navigation coordinates.


The constables now had an idea where Xambria had gone on her hired ship. However, Xambria had a head start of a few days. If they meant to catch her before she arrived at another seal location, they were going to need a fast ship. Fortunately, IronPeak and Mort were going to a party that evening with several high-ranking naval personnel.


IronPeak took Summer as her date, and was unsurprised to find that they were they only two female guests. Both Nigel Price-Hill and Rear Admiral Morris Dawkins courted IronPeak, trying to get her to commit to a lucrative career in either the RHC or the Royal Navy. IronPeak played her advantage, bringing up the fact that she was in the process of tracking down a dangerous serial killer who just happened to have fled to sea. If the RHC and Navy could cooperate to allow IronPeak’s squad to use the fastest ship available for an exciting arrest on the high seas, think of the press!


The Constables departed two days later, on the RNS Impossible, in pursuit of their quarry.

To Sea!

The constables headed out to sea in pursuit of their quarry, Xambria Meredith, who seemed to be either possessed or otherwise controlled by whatever had escaped from the ziggurat. She seemed to be headed to some nautical coordinates off the coast of Ber, and while she had a head start of several days, the RNS Impossible was much faster than her hired ship, Dagger.


In an effort to conceal their approach, the constables had Captain Rutger Smith approach the site under cover of darkness, with the landmass of Ber behind them to conceal their silhouette. As they drew within visual range, the constables saw three ships instead of the one they expected. A large frigate flying a black flag seemed to be defending an ares of sea where an underwater beacon had been placed. Two smaller ships (The Dagger and another ship flying a Ber flag) were waiting some distance away.


The constables decided to ignore all the ships and sneak to the underwater site in the darkness. James cast a Water Breathing ritual and the constables had a marine row a longboat within a few hundred feet of the site. They dove into the water and descended the ocean floor fifty feet below. Malkie guided the others in the darkness.


At the beacon, they found a series of lanterns that were magically holding back the water, providing a contiguous series of air pockets. Under the air pockets was an archaeological dig site. The seabed had been excavated to a depth of twenty feet, revealing a golden plate similar in design to the one at the bayou ziggurat. The area around the seal was protected by warding circles. A crane was on a shelf above the seal, in position to pull it out of the way.


The constables began to investigate the site. Cazara noticed some sea life: a shark and a large octopus, but they both fled. After a brief review of their goals here, which included preventing the seal from being opened, Mort set a bomb on the crane. The bomb went off prematurely, catching Mort in its blast, but it did enough damage to the crane to topple it.


After a few minutes, the shark returned with its druid master and a pile of guards summoned from the ship above. The guards did not ask any questions and simply began attacking. The sharks and guards posed little problem for the well-prepared constables, but Summer got carried away moving the diving-bell lanterns around with her Mage Hand spell. She chased the aquatic creatures with the air pockets, successfully dropping one of the sharks to the sea floor. Unfortunately, in doing so, she moved the lantern which was protecting the warding circle from the seawater.


The leader of the team of guards, a tiefling woman, surrendered to Mort and began questioning him as to why the constables were destroying her dig site. The constables barely had time to question her in return when the seal suddenly blasted free of its portal, unleashing a flood of fishmen and a massive water elemental. The tiefling suggested that the two parties could save their conflict for later and promptly blasted a group of fishmen.


The constables diced the fishmen in a matter of seconds, but the sea elemental tried to drown Cazara, even though she was still being affected by a Water Breathing spell. Apparently elemental living water was more powerful than James spell, as Cazara’s eyes rolled back in her head. James helped Cazara break free of the thing’s influence, and then Summer banished it to the Dreaming with a wave of her hand.


The two groups worked together to rebuild the warding circles, and then the constables placed the tiefling, Finona Duvall, under arrest, taking her back to the Impossible.

To Seal, part 1

The constables interviewed tiefling archaeologist Finona Duvall. She told them that she was doing contract work for Monsieur Caius Bergeron. The constables informed Finona that her patron had been murdered, and that the constables were here in pursuit of the murderer, Xambria Meredith. They asked if Finona had Xambria on her ship. Finona at first denied any knowledge of Xambria, but eventually she remembered her as the leader of the archaeology team at the High Bayou dig site. Finona explained how she and her team had to come in and fix the mess left behind by Xambria. It seemed that, now that her employer was dead, Finona was more than willing to turn on him. She offered up hard evidence on his schemes in exchange for her freedom. The constables agreed to this, but also demanded that Finona and her team bury the seal below them. The RNS Impossible would remain behind to ensure Finona’s cooperation, while the constables sailed back on Xambria’s hired ship.


Then the constables sent for the captain of the Dagger, Jack Glassmaker, to question him about his passenger. Captain Glassmaker was cooperative and told the constables that Xambria had hired his ship to come to this location, but that when they saw Finona’s ship, Il Draçon de Mer, with its 24 cannons, they told Xambria that they could not go into battle for her. Another, smaller, ship was at the site when they arrived, La Inspiración, and they had pulled up alongside to find out the situation. On board La Inspiración was a goblin archaeologist named Paco de los Loros, who claimed that this was his dig site, but that Il Draçon de Mer had arrived shortly after him, and forced him and his team off the site. Deciding that Captain Glassmaker was telling the truth, they sent him back to his ship and went to collect Xambria.


Xambria put up no resistance and was escorted back to the Impossible’s brig in mage cuffs. She told a tale of being pursued by a creature from the High Bayou dig site, that it had followed her to her home and seemed to want something from her. Caius Bergeron had summoned her to a meeting the night before she left town, where he had told her of a new dig site and she had pleaded with him not to open another seal. Afraid for what might happen, she planned to charter a vessel and go to the site herself to prevent a disaster. When she got home that night, the strange creature had attacked her, and she fled her apartment and hired the Dagger as soon as she could. Her version of events upon arriving at the underwater site matched up with Captan Glassmaker’s. The constables used their planar energy ritual to see if she had any Apet energy on her, and to no one’s surprise, she was glowing with Apet energy.


Xambria produced the Golden Icon of Apet from inside her shirt. It was hanging on a chain around her neck. She speculated that maybe the creature that was following her had locked onto the icon. The constables immediately confiscated the item. Mort and Ironpeak returned from a search of Xambria’s cabin, where they had discovered that she had only brought cold-weather clothing that would completely cover her arms and legs. Thinking this was suspicious, or at least notable, for an early-autumn trip to Ber, the constables questioned Xambria about it. When she indicated that it was just her personal style, the constables became even more suspicious and IronPeak asked her to roll up a sleeve. Xambria refused and it seemed the constables would have to restrain her, but Cazara managed to break through and connect with Xambria. She agreed to roll up her sleeve for Cazara if everyone else would exit the room. When everyone left, Xambria rolled up her sleeve, revealing an eyeball near the inside of her elbow. She looked pleadingly to Cazara and asked her to help.


The constables left Xambria guarded by at least one marine and one constable at all times. They released Finona, who held up the first part of her bargain and delivered a letter with the following text:


Memorandum for Finona Duvall,

I was impressed by the flawless professionalism of your clean-up at the High Bayou excavation. The previous expedition was staffed with cavalier fools, but you emerged unscathed from peril, which highlights your intellect and acumen. I think you have the potential to benefit my associates greatly, and if your work continues to be of this masterful caliber, I shall recommend you be brought in more fully.

To wit, I trust you will handle this your fourth dig site with the same skill. However, for your new Drakran bodyguards, this will be their first time opening a seal. I am confident neither is so loutish and disruptive as Master Rackus was at the ziggurat of Jiese. Nevertheless, it is imperative that we avoid a disaster like what occurred at the bayou ziggurat. The magic and defenses at these ruins are complex and secretive, so while I thoroughly trust your familiarity with the dangers, we need take no unnecessary risks.

Firstly, each of the golden seals were crafted by the Ancients specifically to close a portal to another world. Examination of the relief images on each suggests hostile creatures had been entering our world through these portals, and that the Ancients used the seals to slow an invasion. The creatures were not of any known modern race. Be certain your allies are forewarned, and keep close eye on their mental stability. At least once disaster has struck because someone panicked at the revelation that the world was much larger than their current conception.

Second, the peculiar nature of the seal magic appears to have trapped a small mote of the other world on the far side of the portal. I suspect that this somehow redirected the existing portals to this pocket dimension, and that perhaps simply closing the portal was beyond the skill of the Ancients. Though ages have passed, and we can only assume the invasion forces were stopped somehow, each time we have opened one of these seals, creatures have survived within. Make sure everyone is armed at all times and ready for battle.

Third, the hostile creatures appear to have belonged to different factions, as the seals of Jiese, Nem, and Apet depict distinct sorts of creatures. The Ancients clearly dealt with threats from worlds beyond those known to us today, since the beings that emerged from the ziggurat of Apet do not match any of the current lore of that world. Indeed, the strange beasts were not even the same sort as portrayed on the seals. Do not presume that simply because you are opening a portal to the plane of water that any creatures beyond must share the same elemental affiliation. Use multiple warding circles in your initial explorations; we can afford the expense.

Fourth, either time or magic has had the effect of concentrating the inherent planar energy within the mote beyond the seals. When the Mavisha seal is finally opened, expect intense energy to pour out. This will probably just be elemental water energy, but as always, precautions rule the day. Make sure first to know the nature of the energy, and set up appropriate wards. If possible, do not be nearby when the seal opens.

Finally, while we have endeavored to maintain a certain discretion in our activities, we have attracted the unfortunate attentions of an RHC squad, and I fear we might be being watched by agents of the Unseen Court. Be prepared for attack from without as well as within when you’re at the dig. Afterward, maintain the greatest discretion in transporting the golden seal. If necessary, abandon it so you can make sure to reach me with your research. While a ton of gold is valuable in its own right, we’re fairly certain any gold suffices for these seals, so your examinations of the abjurations are more valuable than the physical artifact.

Please try to enjoy your journey. Seobriga in Autumn is lovely, and I trust the more rustic charms of the land around the ziggurat of Mavisha will provide a pleasant respite from the stress of avoiding ancient curses and otherworldly carnivores. I await your return with an admitted enthusiasm, and I insist you recount your journey with the utmost detail while enjoying the finest wines from my family’s vineyards.

Do be safe, Finona.


Your benefactor and cohort,
Caius Bergeron


P.S., If complications arise, do try to wrap up before Winter. It would be a treasure if you could accompany me by train from Beaumont on the 11th. I have a meeting to attend on the 20th in Vendricce, after which I plan to stay in Crisillyir for a few months. I would love the company of a vivacious young woman, since my host is somewhat too aged and philosophical for my tastes.


While the constables (minus James, who was watching Xambria) were discussing the implications of this letter, a Marine entered their room and said that James needed to see them at once. They rushed down to the Impossible’s brig and James showed the other a note that a guard had found tucked away in Xambria’s boot:


Help me
It followed me from the dig
It has me
I only have a moment
It wants the three relics
Warn the constables.
It talks in my mind
I know things I couldn’t
Its name is Sijhen
I hear the word Gidim
Gidim Gidim? Gidim
A people? A world?
Another name it’s curious about
Obscurati
Obscurati?
Obscurati

To Seal, part 2

The constables took the new information from Xambria and Finona and had some decisions to make. Cazara and IronPeak immediately mocked the name of the organization they seemed to have uncovered. “Obscurati? Like Obscura and Illuminati? Seriously?” Mort argued for just traveling directly to Vendricce and trying to uncover what was happening there. The group was closer to Vendricce than Flint. Why travel all the way back to Flint and wait ninety days when they could just head to Crissilyir now and start getting to the bottom of things. The others argued that they needed to get Sijhen out of Xambria and the best way to go about that would be back at RHC Headquarters.


They let Summer study the sky, asking what was the best way to get through to the real Xambria. She had a dream of Xambria being questioned in the magic-proof cells below RHC HQ, so they headed there. Cazara made sure to inform Xambria of their choice, to see if she would panic, or if Sijhen would make itself known, but she seemed relieved at the news.


The week-long journey back to Flint was mostly uneventful. They took Xambria to Headquarters and put her in one of the magic-proof cells, where she immediately began to scream and thrash about, as though she were fighting for control of her own body. This continued for several days, only stopping when Xambria exhausted herself into a fitful sleep. Cazara and Summer kept a round-the-clock vigil. While this was going on, IronPeak charged James with removing her Distant Madness, which was getting out of control.


The day James did the ritual on IronPeak, Mort was at RHC Headquarters sorting through his investigation into Caius Bergeron’s business. Malkie had slunk back into the building at some point, hoping no one noticed that, after an unfinished duel with a shark, she just disappeared for more than a week. Cazara and Summer were both downstairs when Xambria finally had a lucid moment.


“So forgive me if this comes out a little non-chronolinearly,” she said, barely slowing down for acknowledgement. It was clear she wanted to get out as much information as she could before she lost control again. “I think I’ve gone several shades of crazy. Getting everything out is more important than getting it clear. You might want to write some of this gibberish down.


“The thing in my head, its name is Sijhen. It’s a Gidim. They’re some sort of race from another world, and it was trapped behind the ziggurat’s seal for thousands of years. Real lookers, from its memories.


“Do you know what brain tastes like? I’m not a fan. Imagine being brought by a friend you don’t really like to the same restaurant that only serves—you know, never mind, you don’t want to know. Never with my own mouth, thank you, though.


“It got out, got into me, made me forget. I’m still not sure what I don’t remember, but it definitely was interested in the Obscurati. It only figured that name out later, after it ate old Monsieur Bergeron’s brain.


“You guys, you fought against Macbannin. He was with Bergeron. There are these cells, keep them all secret from each other. Only a few people at the top know how it all fits together, and Caius wasn’t at the top. But the Obscurati—that’s a long name. The Ob. Sounds less ominous. Ob. Ob, Ob, Ob?”


Cazara interrupted at this point, getting Xambria back on track. “So the Ob,” continued Xambria, “they want to find out all about the Ancients and these seals. Caius was paying for us to do that for them. He reported up. I think he had a spell put on him to keep anyone from finding out who ‘up’ was from him.


“Oh, and he’s going to ride the train. Sijhen didn’t care about that, because it’s months from now, but I think it’s important. Whoever is ‘up’ will be there.


“Sijhen kept opening these portals, but it could never go through. Something stopped it. Portals instead of trains, hmph. He’s just like that Catherine Romana. Even a madwoman can read the papers, you know.”


Summer and Cazara could hear a commotion coming from the other end of the basement at this point, among the regular cells. “Damn! There was something else I just remembered that was important, but it’s fighting. It made me forget. Your boss! Your boss, Saxby has something it wants. Saxby wasn’t up, wasn’t down, but was sideways. She worked for Macbannin. You probably ought to deal with that.”


The commotion picked up in intensity and then someone screamed. “Oh, I got it! Sijhen doesn’t care about the train because it plans to leave, and bring an invasion back. It planned to get captured, and I’m not really … in control…


“Oh, balls.”


And then a sudden wave of extraplanar energy washed over the entire headquarters, pouring out of the stone walls to the south. The entirety of RHC Headquarters staggered at the sudden sense of dislocation, and every inanimate object not carried or worn by someone turned impossibly translucent. The constables and their co-workers could see through the stone, down to the sewer, out to the nearby under-construction subrail tunnel, over to the band of black-clad murderers sneaking through the basement, all the way through to the ground floor and second floor and each other, and then the world turned transparent, nothing but contour lines and faded textures. The sight is too much for anyone’s mind to grasp, and people everywhere dropped to their knees. Cazara and Summer could see one thing clearly, though. Xambria stood up, jumped into the ceiling, dug fingers into invisible handholds, and pulled herself up through solid stone to the ground floor.


As the vertigo began to pass, the world has started to darken back to translucence, and then to solidity. The constables could not shake the feeling that another wave was coming, and then came the realization that for a moment, when everything was transparent, they could see dozens of thoughtmonsters flying through the building.

This Just Got Real

Reality was pulsing in and out of solidity in the Royal Homeland Constabulary Headquarters, on about a thirty-second cycle. Every thirty seconds, there was a short period where anyone could walk right through the walls and floors, which became transparent during this time. They would fade back to complete opacity and solidity on the other end of the cycle. Dozens of thought monsters were whipping through the building, preying on anyone they could find.


The constables were spread throughout the building, as were many staffers and other constables. When everyone regained their balance after the vertigo-inducing wave of energy, Cazara and Summer were focused on tracking down the escaping Xambria and/or Sijhen, last seen heading for Saxby’s office. Cazara downed a potion to protect herself from the psychic energies of Apet, while Summer turned invisible and ran for the stairs out of the basement as fast as she could. Cazara sent a Messenger Wind to IronPeak, telling her that Sijhen had escaped and to keep an eye out for Xambria, and also informing her that when reality had become transparent, Xambria had climbed right through the ceiling as though it did not exist.


On the ground floor, James had just finished treating IronPeak’s Distant Madness. The two of them at first thought that the weird visual effects were a result of of James’s spell, but then they heard screaming coming from the hall. IronPeak led the way into the hallway, where she saw a glowing orb and some crawling beasts killing RHC staff and visitors. She charged into action, followed by James, who got off a couple of musket shots to keep the beasts at bay. After they dealt with the hallway, the walls and ceiling became transparent. Looking up, IronPeak saw that she was right below Xambria, who was threatening Lady Inspectress Saxby.


Upstairs, Mort Stark and Malkie Vienne were in separate offices. Outside his window, Mort saw a flying thing identical to the ones the constables had seen at the fair. Without hesitating, he drew a pistol and, wanting to waste no time actually opening his window, he shot through the glass, nearly killing the thing in a single shot. It came after him, but he made quick work of it with the bladed end of his pistol. Just as he killed the thing, he heard Summer’s voice directing him toward Saxby’s office as she ran through his office invisibly.


In the far corner of the building, Malkie saw that Assistant Chief Inspector Delft was being menaced by a massive bodiless worm maw similar to the one that had “eaten” IronPeak at the Arms Expo. It had devoured her, setting off her Distant Madness over three weeks ago. But since the maw was unconnected to a body, she had just fallen out the other side, confused and insane, but physically okay. Although the maw was currently unable to get past Delft’s office door, Malkie was convinced the maw would kill Delft, and she moved to rescue him. She climbed out the window of her office, threw a brick through the nearby window of Delft office, and scampered along the wall (with her Boots of Spider Climbing). She entered his office, holding a pair of potions in her hand to help Delft escape. Delft panicked, shouting, “back you Dopplegänger,” before shooting Malkie solidly in the chest. Malkie barely had a moment to convince Delft that she was there to help before reality became unsolid again. The worm maw slipped through the wall, tearing at Malkie and Delft with its tentacles. The thing lifted Malkie to its mouth and swallowed her whole. With the energy of Apet surging through this reality, somehow the worm maw had finally connected with its body, and Malkie was never seen again.


Malkie’s last act did achieve her goal, though: Delft was now convinced that Malkie was not in league with the alien beings surging through the building. He escaped from the maw (which was now trapped inside his office when the walls became solid again) and began to rally the RHC, collecting cowering workers from offices and bathrooms. These he organized into a fighting force.


While Malkie was dying in the Assistant Chief’s office, Ironpeak was pulling herself up through the floor into the Chief’s office, just in time to see Xambria take a two-foot diameter gold plate from Saxby’s safe. Xambria then majestically allowed herself to fall through the floor all the way back down to the basement, where she vanished. Just as IronPeak began to threaten Saxby, a group of black-clad assassins kicked the door in. Saxby scampered, passing by Mort as the two phased through her wall in different directions. This left Mort and IronPeak to fight Saxby’s battles, while she gathered her own team of constables (Blake, Durakh-al, and Fantôme). She assigned Durakh-al and Fantôme to fight the assassins while she and Blake headed down the stairs to the ground floor. As Delft was already organizing the survivors, Lady Inspectress Saxby had little trouble slipping out of the RHC while everyone else was distracted.


An assassin grabbed IronPeak and teleported her down to the basement, thinking he had isolated her from the others. Mort was caught in a tangle of living darkness summoned up by one of the other assassins. Cazara saw IronPeak’s situation just as the walls and floor became solid again. Downing a potion that let her walk through walls anyway, she descended as fast as she could, directly through the floor. James followed, opting for the stairs.


Summer helped Durakh-al and Fantôme clear the upper hallway of assassins and then she, too joined the others in the basement. Mort eventually escaped the assassin’s spell and made his way downstairs as well, with the help of Fantôme.


In the basement, Cazara opened her inner eye, trying to sense where Sijhen had gone. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw his true form, all grey and tentacled, clinging to the invisible Xambria, near the south wall of the jail cells. She pointed his position out to IronPeak, and IronPeak pulled out the Blade of the Ancients and charged toward the wall. When she swung the sword, it summoned another hostile ball of light, but IronPeak managed to crash into Xambria anyway and was able to awkwardly shove her into a nearby cell and lock the door.


IronPeak somehow managed to banish the light creature almost immediately. This was enough for the assassin. Seeing the RHC in action convinced him he needed to be somewhere else. He ran for the far end of the prison level, where he stepped through a ring of rusted iron and returned to the Bleak Gate.


With Xambria locked in a cell, but not visible, the constables blasted the area with everything they had. It seemed to work, as Sijhen was unable to keep his invisibility spell going. Poisoned, electrocuted, burning, and himself under the effects of a psychic attack (Mort’s Id Moss poison), Sijhen made a run for it when the world slipped once more into transparency. He ran straight through forty feet of solid rock, into the nearby subrail under-construction subrail tunnel. This exertion plus Mort’s poison gave Xambria a chance to gain control of her body for a moment. Her old mining pick manifested in her hand and the group looked on as she drove the pick right into her own leg and then passed out.


IronPeak was the only constable able to give chase before reality became solid again. She found Xambria lying amongst a circle of eight lanterns, which were all emitting a silvery light. Up against one of the walls of the subrail tunnel was the golden seal of Apet, glowing with energy. When she collapsed, Xambria dropped the two-foot golden plate she had stolen from Saxby’s office. IronPeak saw that it had eight concentric rings with representations of the planets on it. Additionally, it had rings showing the various constellations that were associated with the planets.


IronPeak shoved Xambria’s unconscious body out of the circle of lanterns, then turned back to retrieve the solar-system plate when she felt ephemeral fingertips caress her brain. “I rather liked that body. But yours will do,” whispered Sijhen as it took her over. Ironpeak found herself picking up the plate and re-aligning the sigils, so different constellations matched up with different planets. She managed to wrest control of her body back momentarily, during which time she bent the plate, hoping to destroy it. An earthquake shook through Flint as Ironpeak roughly handled the representation of the planet Urim, plane of earth. Sijhen quickly regained control, bent the plate back to some semblance of operability and continued its ritual.


After thirty seconds, Cazara, James, and Summer came dashing through the forty feet of solid stone they had been forced to wait behind. Cazara attacked Sijhen while Summer and James took in the arcane ritual it was creating. Summer immediately recognized that the eight lanterns were channeling starlight. As IronPeak worked the Ancient Star Map, the lanterns aligned themselves with different constellations. Summer immediately inferred that if she could manually realign the lanterns to the constellation of The Lost (associated with Nem, the outermost planet and plane of Ruin), she could shut down the ritual. She tried to push out of her mind the dream she’d recently had where she’d seen RHC Headquarters reduced to a blasted wasteland.


Mort, upon seeing Sijhen with its fingers in IronPeak’s skull, could not restrain himself. He lined up a shot at the alien creature and fired his pistol. The bullet never made it through the wall, getting swallowed up somewhere amongst the forty feet of stone as the walls became solid. It was only at that moment that he realized that he’d forgotten to traverse the intervening distance and would have to wait another thirty seconds to join the others in the subrail tunnel. Turning to his left, he also noticed that he was inside a jail cell. He really hoped the door wasn’t locked…

I love it when things go crazy like that. Nice job handling all the moving parts, roadtoad.

RangerWickett said:

I love it when things go crazy like that. Nice job handling all the moving parts, roadtoad.

Click to expand...

The crazy just keeps on coming.

Here's the crater I just drew on our big poster map of Flint:

This is the End

The world was turning solid again. Xambria lay dying on the floor of the under-construction subrail tunnel. IronPeak was being controlled by Sijhen, working a golden plate engraved with concentric rings, each representing a planet. Cazara was being systematically pushed away down the rail tunnel by the power of Sijhen’s mind.James and Summer were trying to realign the eight lanterns to disrupt Sijhen’s ritual. James managed to align one lantern, its silvery light turning golden, but otherwise they were having no success. On the nearby wall, the golden seal of Apet was glowing with power. Sijhen was only moments from opening a portal to its home planet of Gidim.

Suddenly, IronPeak broke Sijhen’s control over her and she ran off down the tunnel with the golden plate. Cazara yelled at her to throw it to the ground and she complied. Sijhen gave chase and once again took control of IronPeak’s brain. Cazara leapt across the railroad tracks and kicked the golden plate out of reach while punching Sijhen.

The alien being’s voice was suddenly in Cazara’s head. “Let me go home and I’ll return the archaeologist to you.” Cazara asked how long the portal would remain open, and Sijhen told her that the portal could stay open for five minutes at the most. Sijhen’s superior attitude implied that it thought this was a well-known fact. Cazara asked when Sijhen would return with its army, but the thing claimed it only wanted to return to Gidim. Cazara told Sijhen she could not make the decision herself and that it should ask the entire group.

Sijhen did so. Summer warned that she was afraid that using a portal that led to a planet outside of their own solar system would cause a feedback of Nem energy. She had an instinctual feeling that the outermost planet of their system was working as a gatekeeper of sorts, preventing travel that crossed its orbit. She mentioned that she had recently had a vision of RHC Headquarters being destroyed and that she was worried that allowing Sijhen to cross through his portal could have catastrophic consequences.

Cazara agreed to Sijhen’s deal, being more concerned with Xambria than the RHC. She encouraged the others to go along with her and allow the alien to leave peacefully. Everyone heeded Summer’s warning and made a run for it down the subrail tunnel. Sijhen reached into Cazara’s brain and deposited Xambria’s consciousness. Xambria’s body had died during the altercation, but that was a problem to worry about after this crisis had been resolved.

Sijhen made for its exit. The world became transparent again. James M. Chinast’s Remarkable Mechanical Hat and Mort Stark opened fire, striking down Sijhen just as it was about to exit.

A shockwave shuddered out from the portal, knocking everyone down and burning them with the ruinous energy of Nem. From within the portal emerged a gigantic armored slug-worm thing covered in golden spines and whose body seemed to contain ghostly screaming faces. Mort was running up the stairs in RHC HQ when reality warped and he found himself suddenly right in front of the slug thing. It hurled the Golden Seal of Apet at Mort, crushing him beneath its weight.

The horrible creature had to be banished, but Cazara and Summer were overcome by the urge to run away as fast as they could. Cazara focused on surviving to enact future vengeance, while Summer just kept seeing the devastation of her vision. After seeing Mort go down, IronPeak had to head back to save him. She found a nearby train engine and started pushing it toward the end of the tracks. With enough speed, the engine could hopefully break through the barrier at the end of the tracks and push the giant slug thing back through its portal. James saw what she was doing and jumped aboard the train to try to fire up its engine. After a few failures, he finally got the steam engine to light. IronPeak helped the machine accelerate up to full speed, then let it go at the slug thing while she ran to rescue Mort, scooping up his limp form. She looked through the portal and saw an alien world where pulsating thoughtform flora were clinging to red stones while a titanic purple tendril of psychic light swayed into the sky from beyond the horizon. IronPeak could not shake the feeling that the world beyond had noticed her and was studying her. She ran down the tunnel, away from the portal. Mort regained consciousness just before the train made contact with the slug.
Mort Stark checked his watch. “It will all turn to dust,” he said calmly, and IronPeak felt a chill, as though winter had come early. The walls, which had still been pulsing with Apet energy, changed. The tunnel above peeled away, as though thousands of years of decay happened in a moment. Mort climbed through the ruined tunnel up to street level and had one last look at the sun before the end came.

The train engine slammed into the alien slug thing, driving it back into the portal from which it had emerged. The momentum of the train engine carried it into the portal as well. Immediately the entire wall began to disintegrate into frozen charcoal. The portal’s edges cracked and shattered and collapsed. Everything went dark and the world turned silent except for the tolling of a single bell. The ruinous energies of Nem swept out for a quarter-mile in every direction, turning organic matter to dust and all else to frozen charcoal. Cazara and Summer were near the edge of the energy blast and survived it. IronPeak and James were closer, but were able to survive the surge of magical energies. Mort Stark and everyone else in the blast was not so lucky, and were burnt to ash and then dust.

RHC Headquarters and the surrounding blocks were devastated, as though a thousand years had passed in an instant. When the light returned, the surviving constables found themselves in a wasteland in the middle of Flint’s Central District.

***

Several days later, a memorial was held for the hundreds who had died in The Incident, including a ceremony for the fallen RHC members. Governor Roland Stanfield spoke, referring to the RHC as heroes, and he commended those constables who had helped others escape the area before the blast came. Of course, the press focused on IronPeak. Newspaper articles, undoubtedly influenced by the Risuri Navy and RHC, focused on the lives IronPeak had saved. Lady Inspectress Saxby was on the run, having apparently betrayed both Risur and the Obscurati. In her place, Stover Delft was promoted to Chief Inspector. The Royal Homeland Constabulary had lost over 80% of its staff and was going to be temporarily housed at Pardwight University while they rebuilt.

***

Digging through the wreckage of the RHC, James M. Chinast found something that had survived: the head of the brass golem he had been working on. It was pitted and tarnished, but it still seemed to be working. How had this one thing survived? What secrets did it hold? James was determined to find out.

***

“Uh, hi,” said Xambria’s voice in Cazara’s head. “I, of all people, know exactly how rude it is to live in someone else’s mind, but I don’t have anywhere to live right now. Would it be okay if I just, sort of, crashed here until I can find my own place?”

***

Summer dreamt of lying back on the sentient grass. It swayed around her in the gluttonous breeze. She pondered the heavens above her, and her curiosity sated the grass’s hunger. Above her floated flames and waves and wind and stone, but not the same she had seen as a child, nor even the similar skies of modern Risur. The stars and planets traced strange paths and hummed with impossible possibilities. For the first time in half a millennium, she could not read the stars. Beneath that alien sky, the future had not yet been written.

***

The Danoran Consulate held a funeral for Mort Stark. The day of the funeral, a black steamship cruised into Flint Bay. Mort’s mother had made the voyage from Danor to meet the constables who had worked with her son. She wanted to find out what had happened to her son. Someone was responsible for her son’s untimely demise, and Madame Stark meant to get to the bottom of it, no matter the cost.

New Characters

We need to take three weeks off due to work (mine) and a wedding (not mine).

In the interrim, Mort and Malkie's players are working on two new characters:

Coniglietta di Mezzaluna, a Human Paladin Spirit Medium, formerly of Crissilyir, who was previously charged with corralling wayward souls for some of the Clergy's more awful holy days. At some point, she had an epiphany about what an awful organization the Clergy has become, and she decided to forsake all worldly goods and challenge herself as Triegenes taught. She is currently begging on the streets of Flint's Central District.

Madame Stark, (first name to be determined), probably a Tiefling Ranger Gunsmith, but much is to be decided about her. We'll fill in the details as the player decides on them.

Last known photograph of RHC Headquarters

A picture of the layout right after Sijhen escaped.